Testing Together in a Flight Test Training Environment

Panagiotis A. Vitsas, International Test Pilots School, Canada
Emre Can Kaya, Turkish Aerospace Industries, Turkey

Abstract

Flight testing relies heavily in team work engaging individuals and organizations from different professions, backgrounds and cultures. The successful completion of a flight test project can thus be considered to be depending more on the team performance rather than the individual performance. Coordination and communication of the teams are just a few of the challenges met similarly to other professional fields, but considering the high risk involved in flight test operations, each of the factors that affect the team’s performance are more rigorously taken into consideration. The present presentation describes the factors that influence the testing in teams at International Test Pilots School (ITPS Canada), where pilots and engineers are introduced to the flight test profession and where a number of international flight test programs have been conducted for training purposes. A recent successful flight test project is presented, where International Test Pilots School, Royal Malaysian Air Force (RMAF) and Turkish Aerospace Industries successfully cooperated in Su-30MKM flight tests, providing an example where testing together has produced on time and on budget a very useful end product. The core objective of the flight tests was to determine the specific excess power and energy maneuverability of the Su-30MK and produce operationally useful diagrams in order to update the RMAF airplane’s flight manual. During the presentation emphasis is given in the team composition and team dynamics, management, challenges faced by the international flight test teams and lessons learned.